Disruption is the underlying theme in the world's agriculture and food sectors, as technology marches on, trailing behind it a billowing tailwind of shell-shocked old-line companies and legions of bright-eyed startups.

Just sorting out all the change was the one-day mission of the invite-only Arlon Summit held Nov. 9 in New York City by Arlon Group, a global food and ag investment firm that was spawned in 2007 by privately held global ag-biz giant Continental Grain Co.

The day's head-turning Idea Man was keynoter John Grubb, a trend-spotting industry strategist and Managing Partner at Summit Venture Management in Boulder.

According to Grubb, it is unsteady going these days for long-dominant firms in both Big Ag and Big Food, who are seeing challenges to their longstanding symbiotic compact with giant food retailers, the latter being highly dependent on "food-science driven" products, known less flatteringly as processed foods.

One factor upsetting the apple cart is the changing tastes and values of millennials. Young adults are proving distrusting of old-line Big Food brands, and they're looking around for foods that have a story to tell in terms of origins, ingredients and healthfulness. They want to know where and how a food product was produced. Is it nutritional and healthful? Is it full of junky ingredients? Does the company that made it merit my trust and respect?

Their buying decisions are influenced more by peer endorsements (from social media and personal chit-chat) than by that traditional filter, advertising.

Food and beverage distribution, too, is starting to be heavily disrupted by tech and changing tastes. Natural and organic markets have turned out to be not as terrified as it first seemed by Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods Markets and the behemoth's plans to launch 3,000 "frictionless" Amazon Go stores by 2021. But that's because the smaller guys, too, can embrace the new — things like cashier-less stores with pay-by-facial-recognition software, pop-up stores, premium private labeling, mobile commerce and delivery via autonomous vehicles — plus many other "agile" moves that are yet to be invented.

Unlike old-guard Big Food companies, startups are looking toward game-changing strategies such as "deep one-to-one consumer engagement" and hiring people not so much for experience and credentials as for "passion and entrepreneurial spirit," Grubb told the group.

While brick-and-mortar grocery is in no danger of going away, there is too much grocery retail space. That means grocery players in the middle — those not leading on price, product or experience — are likely to be marginalized.

Similarly, if big food companies with brands founded on obsolete insights cannot find a way to innovate and grow, they may have nothing left but "managing a declining annuity as a primary business strategy," Grubb said.

The entire food business, from grower to consumer, will be pursuing an ongoing process of "cleansing itself of inefficiency." The future, he said, may not resemble even the recent past. He quoted a chief information officer of food giant Kraft Heinz who opined: "Business as usual does not exist."